World Cup 2022: Who wants to see the poor die for the rich?

Time is passing by and the world is approaching Football World Cup Tournament 2022. Qatar must be thrilled to see the infrastructure is almost ready to receive spectators from around the world. But if these people know how these stadiums were built, they will surely have a second thought and prefer to refrain from attending in protest over those who died on the sites of the magnificent buildings.

According to Wall Street Journal, in a report published in 2015, “the International Trade Union Confederation claims that over 1,200 workers have died while working on infrastructure and real-estate projects related to the World Cup 2022, and Qatar’s counter-claim that none had.”

The International Trade Union Confederation estimated that the worker death toll could hit 4,000 before the World Cup 2022 begins.

The number is appalling and signifies that the employers are careful about their interests and negligent of the souls of their laborers.

Qatar recruited more than a million workers from South-East Asia to build stadiums, railways, and other facilities necessary for the event, and most of them suffer from harsh condition unsuitable for human living.

The workers are crowded in accommodations lacking hygiene, ventilation, and with very little furniture if any. The pictures taken from those accommodations are similar to the slums in the crowded cities in India and Bangladesh in return for a meager income which is hardly sufficient to feed their families back in their home countries.

The suffering is far more than the coins they earn, but the tragedy is compounded when some of the workers went bank home in coffins. If there was a hope for improvement, death put an end to it.

Qatar has been warned several times to no avail. Workers are still suffering and many of them have not taken their salaries for months. Is that what they have travelled all the way to the waste land of Qatar to achieve?

Formalities were brushed aside by simple denial on the part of the Qataris. In this case, nothing can make them understand the plight of their workers except boycotting the event.

If the civilized world cares about humanity, it has to protest the misery of the laborers in Qatar by not attending the event for which many workers have died and many may die in the countdown to the 2022 event. 

This is intended to tell Qatar that “your facilities are magnificent thanks to the skulls they were built on.” Boycotting World Cup 2022 is a moral obligation and not an option for those who sympathize with the mourners left behind without bread providers after their demise in Qatar.

If the international human rights organizations cannot protect the workers, this is the time when nations should take over the mission. The power of nations is stronger than laws and regulations, and when they boycott the event, they serve a painful blow to those who think they are better than the rest of people simply because they are richer.

Those who will attend the event betray human ethics which have condemned slavery for ages. They will prove themselves to be apathetic to the suffering of the workers who departed and the misery of their families left behind.

This is the chance for the conscientious, respectful and noble people to extract a little regret from the merciless wealthy who think they can buy everything with their wealth even human souls.

If they do not respond to human rights reports and objections from embassies, at least they should lose this business as a punishment for their abuse which is tantamount to crimes against humanity.